The present invention relates to a system for balancing fluids in a human body and more particularly to a gravity flow system for monitoring and controlling fluid removal and fluid infusion to a patient.
Most known systems for monitoring and controlling fluid removal and infusion into a patient's body control only the infusion of fluids at a controlled rate and cannot control a patient's fluid dynamic state in total. Known fluid removal and infusion systems also do not control the flow of fluids to and from the body in a very accurate manner. One common technique used by most of these known monitoring systems involves counting drops, but such systems are sensitive to variations in drop size caused by temperature and viscosity, drop rate and manufacturing accuracy of the drop platform.
Other generally more accurate commercially available systems depend on use of a pump to control either the infusion of fluid or the balancing of fluids in the patient's body. The accuracy required of the pumps, however, greatly increases the cost of such systems.
It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide a gravity flow system for balancing body fluids in a very accurate manner.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a gravity flow system for balancing body fluids that is substantially cheaper to manufacture than systems utilizing pumps.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a gravity flow system for balancing body fluids which allows an operator to select one of several modes of operation.